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Monday, August 29, 2016

I Have Always Wanted To Try This: Embroidery on a Photo

I have seen some artists who take black and white photos and add color by embroidering it onto the image. I love embroidery and photography and I had been dying to try this. My Nana recently took a trip to Arizona to visit family and someone gave her some awesome photos of her younger years. This was one of the photos and I loved it.

My Nana looks so beautiful. It looks like a scene from a old Mexican movie. She looks like a movie star. I knew immediately that this was the perfect picture to try out this new craft. I consulted with my crafty cousin Cassie to see the best way to do it. She recommended transferring the image to a canvas. As I looked into this it would require me take apart the canvas so that I can iron on the transfer. And a needle through a canvas is a lot more work. So I decided to go with just a piece of linen.

After a quick trip to Hobby Lobby for transfer paper, a piece of white linen, and embroidery string I was ready to get started. Step one was to print and iron the image onto the cloth. I was worried it would bubble or not stick in some places. I had nothing to worry about!

Then it was time to bust out the hoop and start working. I was debating between making the skirt red with yellow flowers or green with yellow flowers. I ended it going with green because it was my Tata's favorite color and I imagine this is what my Nana looked like when he first laid eyes on her.

It took about 4 days to finish and since Joey was out of town I had a lot of time to work on it.

As it started to come together I could see the end result and I was so excited to finish. I couldn't embroider fast enough!

I went to a thrift shop and found the perfect matted frame. When it was done we stretched the cloth over the matting and it was done.

I could not be happier with how it turned out! I love how it brings depth, texture and color to what is now one of my favorite pictures.

Over the weekend I got to give it to my Mom for her birthday! I was so excited to give it to her.

This was such a fun project and I hope that I can fine some more photo to embroider!